Do you get marketing calls on your iPhone? Do callers pester you with offers of products and services you don’t want? Why not block them so they can’t call again? Here is a step-by-step guide.

Once your phone number becomes known to marketers you can become the victim of many calls from companies you don’t want to deal with selling products you are not interested in.

Some calls are scams and the people responsible are out to make money from you. You could end up losing a lot of cash if you are not careful.

Sometimes scammers will call and then hang up as soon as you answer, of they let the phone ring once and then hang up.

You might see missed calls on your phone when you pick it up.

The hang up to confuse you and make you wonder who called. Was it a friend or was the call important? The scammers hope you will call back and then they charge you by the minute to talk to some sales person about something that is of no interest to you.

Fortunately, you can block unwanted sales calls, people who hang up after one ring, and companies you would rather not deal with.

1 View call notifications

Pull down from the top of the screen on the iPhone and select the Notifications tab if it is not already selected. You might see a missed call.

2 Get more information

Unlock the phone, press Phone and select Recents at the bottom of the screen. Unsolicited sales calls and scammers will call from an unknown number, and if it was missed, it is displayed in red. Press the i button on the right.

3 Copy the number

The information screen is an important one and there is an option to block the number down at the bottom. What if the number is simply from a friend with a new phone, a legitimate company, someone you deal with who isn’t in your contacts?

Best check that number. Long press on it and then press Copy when it appears.

4 Search with Safari

Press the home button and then press Safari to open a browser window. Long press in the search box and then press Paste to paste in the number. Search for it.

5 See the search results

I used Google for this and here in the UK it produces several good links to websites that either have phone directories or lists of scammers and junk callers. Tapping a link took me to a site that clearly showed that the number is from a junk caller who has been pestering many more people.

Searching the number in your own local Google search will no doubt produce similar results. Google is pretty good at recognising phone numbers and showing links to sites that can tell you who they belong to.

6 Block the number

Back at the information screen (step 3), scroll down to the bottom and press Block this Caller. You won’t hear from this phone number again.

7 View and edit blocked numbers

The iPhone adds the number to a Blocked list and you can see it by going to Settings, Phone, Blocked. The one I just added is at the bottom.

You can remove numbers from the blocked list by swiping left over them. Then tap the red Unblock button.

Don’t suffer phone pests, sales calls and scams. Block the numbers on your iPhone for a quieter more peaceful life.